praying for sunny days

i know.  i stink.  i told you i’d update and i never did.  but i don’t technically have to be anywhere until 4 this afternoon, so i have no excuse.  click the pictures to enlarge.  and let me know if that doesn’t work for you (i’ve changed how i update my blog, so if i need to revert back, i will, if nobody can see the full-sized images…i realize that you have to log in to facebook to see the full-sized images.  shoot me an e-mail if you don’t want to sign up for facebook – i have an account i don’t use that people think is an actual person named ginger watson, and can give you log-in details so you can see the pictures.)

i got to banff at the end of june, and immediately noticed the beauty surrounding me.  this is rundle mountain, as seen from the road leading to the music building.

within the first week, we (members of the bassoon studio…who else?!) went into town, went to the grocery store, saw wild sausages (tell me if you agree!), hiked up a few mountains (fell down a few mountains), saw a few rainbows, and bonded (and oh yeah, we played a bunch of bassoon…)

(rundle from town, with a church steeple in front)

(everything is captioned in french)

(tell me i’m not crazy by thinking upon first glance that this said “wild sausage” flavor)

(banff as seen from tunnel mountain)

(my battle scar from the first hike)

(the banff springs hotel in the foreground. this is just as we started the uphill part of the hike)

(we hiked to the hot springs.  this is the view from the walk up to the entrance)

(when we got to the hot springs, it started raining.  when we were in the hot springs, there were 2 rainbows that we had to look down on.  as we were walking back to campus, we saw a few more)

(a few shots of the studio…before the hike, getting cold outside of the water, staying warm in the water)

next post…week 2…

i knew it would be a fairly busy summer, as far as bassooning goes.  i had been accepted to (and accepted the offer for) the texas music festival, which is here at UH.  that lasts for a month (may 30-june 28), and includes 6 concerts (2 of the 4 are played twice), not including chamber music performances.  then mom and i were planning on going to the IDRS (international double reed society) convention in provo, UT, which is in the middle of july, for 5 days.  then we’re both playing in the pit for bach to broadway at church.

this morning, however, i got an e-mail saying i’d been accepted to the banff summer masterclass for bassoon, which is held at the banff centre in canada.  one of the teachers there is someone who i would really like a chance to study with, and have been contemplating pursuing an artists diploma with once i finish with my master’s degree, so to have a chance to work with him now is really awesome.  this program runs june 30-july 18.  i have to be there the 29th, so i am leaving houston the day after TMF ends.  

mom has told her sisters, who have indicated that they’d like to come “visit me” in banff, and auntie ellen has told us to just not deal with IDRS and we’ll have a “reunion” in canada.  ha.  

now i have even more to practice, but it’s good.  the folks who are in charge of the masterclass want me to let them know what rep i want to perform while there, and my teacher and i have decided on 2 standards (mozart concerto and saint-saens sonata) and a fun one (mignone concertino, which the teacher i am wanting to study with has recorded).  and i am taking an audition for a symphony in 2-1/2 weeks.  and for TMF, i am preparing the mignone for their concerto competition, which means i have a month to memorize it.  

so much going on, but i really really love it.  really really.

right now they’re saying it’s a 1.1 mile visibility outside.that is most definitely NOT true. theresa (my roommate, for those who don’t know) ran out of gas at midnight. in the middle of nowhere (practically…on my way out to find her, i passed a “cow crossing” sign). in the middle of a “dense fog advisory” warning. i stopped at a gas station and bought a gas can and filled it with gas, then made my way through unlit streets that i’d never driven on before in an area of town that would be freaky without the fog and the “12:30″ on my clock. i finally found her and thankfully there was a nice guy who pulled over to help cause we could for the life of us figure out how to get the gas OUT of the can. probably could have had it not been in the middle of the night and in scary fog on an unlit street.our drive back along beltway 8 (the only familiar road i saw) was filled with visibility of maybe…MAYBE…15 feet. there was a car in front of us that stopped at a green light (maybe he was dyslexic?), and then a few miles down the road, i saw what i thought was a stop light, except it never got closer, and i realized it was a car, so i just passed it. and i figured out that street lights make fog worse…you usually seem to have a sort of bubble of “clear” around your car, but when there’s a street light, it illuminates the fog that is on top of you and makes it even harder to see. blah.so we got home safely, and theresa needs to go straight to a gas station when she leaves in the morning. that sure was an adventure…

i’m almost done packing my bags to leave in the morning…the only thing left to do is take out the trash (where to, i don’t know…i might just leave it here) and pack my bed. this past week and a half has been interesting…and very productive.

amanda (the clarinet player) and i went to the strip a few times the first few days we were here (cause we knew that once things got started we’d be too busy/too tired to go/want to go). i rode the manhattan express @ the new york new york hotel & casino, which was really fun (though really pricey), and that’s really the only thing i REALLY wanted to do on the strip while i was here.

on tuesday my foot started killing me (it had been bugging me a bit prior to that day, but it got REALLY bad that night). i was still in a great deal of pain wednesday morning, and so i ended up going to the ER to get it checked out. my teacher, cheryl (who is going to be my teacher at UH this year, as well), let amanda and i take her rental to the hospital. while there, they told me they couldn’t do anything and said i had to go to a specialist (then proceeded to take $100 of my parents’ money for the hassle). i went to a specialist the next day (again, using cheryl’s car) and was told it wasn’t broken, but had all the signs of an over-worked stress fracture, and to stay off of it using the seemingly $100 crutches that i got at the ER.

so from then on (okay…from wednesday afternoon on), cheryl worked her schedule around mine so she could pick me up from the dorms and take me back at night, and let me use it if i needed to go somewhere (dinner, walgreens, etc.), which was totally unnecessary of her. but i (and my foot…and my “sherpas” who helped carry my instrument all week) am very grateful for her kindness.

there was the usual drama, with a guy pretty much getting kicked out of the festival 2 days before the concert. first he was in a septet that ended up getting cancelled, partially because it wasn’t coming together, and partially because nobody wanted to do it in the first place. then he didn’t learn his part in orchestra beforehand and kept messing up stuff repeatedly. and he didn’t really want to be here. so i guess that all worked out for the better for all of us (cause the gal who took over his orchestra part rocked it and learned the whole thing in 2 days).

while the conductor was dealing with the guy, we were supposed to be starting rehearsal on one of the pieces i played on. since he was running late, we decided to just play it by ourselves. he walked in, let us play the whole symphony without him, and said “i’ll take your rehearsal and raise you a concert”. so we ended up playing prokofiev’s “classical” symphony Orpheus-style…a rendition that received a standing ovation from the faculty. the concert was the best we played it (which is saying a LOT, since the last rehearsal we weren’t getting the beginnings PERFECTLY…just close). afterwards, cheryl was very complementary of how “with it” i was, and how reliable i had been during the concert…and she told me that she was really glad i came and how in just a week i got even more prepared for school than i was before. always good to hear when auditions are next week…

i learned a lot while i was here…like how much better i practice knowing my teacher is right next door and can hear every note that comes out of my instrument (talk about nerve-wracking! but i got more done in that hour than i probably would have if she hadn’t been smiling at me through the window in the door before moving next door). and i learned that i have to play the weber concerto at seemingly lightning-fast speed cause one of the freshman is supposed to be a monster player…and i don’t want to get beat out by a freshman (who does?!). and i may or may not have learned more about making reeds…but i did get a few nice ones from our bassoon bonding reed-making times at midnight (since one of the girls who was here was teaching us and using our blanks to demonstrate!).

ok. it’s 3 AM now. and i’m tired. we had a sort-of “final hoop-lah” at the house of one of the clarinet teachers of the festival, and i was falling asleep there, but got a kind of second wind from packing. but other than the bed, it’s done, so i’m going to get only 4 hours of shut-eye…hopefully i’ll be able to sleep on the plane.

yes, i am in sin city right now. got here yesterday; won’t get back to houston until the 13th.

i’m here for the las vegas music festival. i’d link you to there if the website was working, but it’s been down since a few days before applications were due in march. we’re staying on the campus of UNLV, in less-than-stellar dorms (though if you compare them to the kirwan/blanding complex at UK, they’re pretty heavenly…but that doesn’t say much). so far today, 3 fire alarms have gone off (my next-door neighbor’s is going off as i type this), we found out they start construction right outside the dorms at 5 AM every day, and i’ve put in over 3 hours of practice time.

one of the clarinet players is going to be starting her masters at UH this fall, and in some random way, mom and i met her before we came up here. she and i have been hanging out a lot – going to get meals together, walking to our meetings/masterclasses together, etc. – and we’re going to play a duet on one of the chamber concerts, as well. i’ve also developed some nice blisters on my feet from walking so much (which makes me NOT look forward to the coming week and a half…if i got blisters in 1 day here, how bad are they going to get the longer i’m here?!).

anywho…i have a lesson and a masterclass tomorrow, and then saturday i’m going to rest, and then probably go to the strip with amanda (the aforementioned clarinet player) – i really want to ride the new york, new york roller coaster. my schedule doesn’t start getting busy really until tuesday when orchestra rehearsals start.

should be interesting. i’m just glad that i thought to bring my air bed, since the mattresses they have here are horrible…

mom complains too much. seriously. but since all my work last night was apparently a waste of time, i’ll let you know the fun things that have gone on in the last few weeks…

july started off with me sending my bassoon off for a vacation in nebraska. the day after we mailed it, i hopped on a plane to nashville. keep in mind that i was going to drive until about 2:00 the day before i left (i left on july 3). strangely enough, continental had round-trip tickets for $10,000 frequent flyer miles each way, so i flew instead and rented a car.

i stayed with carissa, sharon, and jessica (and roadie and nicky). we went downtown for the fireworks on the 4th and had a good time just hanging out together (which is quite the rare occurrence with those girls).

on thursday i drove over to crestridge to surprise a bunch of girls who i had been telling all year that i wouldn’t be able to come. it was really fun to do that, as i snuck up behind a few of them, and while i was talking to those girls, another walked out with what turned out to be a rotten banana in her hand, and freaked out when she saw me and forgot about that banana (which was halfway in her mouth when she saw me). lol. i saw a couple of the girls who had been in chick 4 when i was counselor there, which was great. one of the girls who i specifically went to see was my chippewa little sister like 7 years ago when i was a cherokee. she was a cherokee this year, made Belle, and was Queen Crester.

i stayed at the conference center for the whole weekend, and helped out in the infirmary on opening day, which was greatly needed, as only one nurse was there on opening day. i went to nibblenook and got to spend some more time with the girls who had just come in – most of whom were in my chick 6 cabin.

i went back to nashville on monday to spend the afternoon with one of the little boys who was in my sunday school class for the 3-1/2 years i was in nashville. i loved playing hide-n-seek with him for 2 hours, and reading to him on the swingset in the beginnings of a rain shower, and just seeing him again. i know i’m not really supposed to have favorites, but he was mine. mostly because he was the first one of the whole group (i moved up with the same kids as they got older) who called me by my name (most of them just said “TEACHER!” if they said anything at all).

to see all my pictures from my trip, click here.

when i got home, my internet was out, so i spent practically a whole week at my parents’ house. the saturday after i got home, the college group from church had a softball/kickball extravaganza. my left foot started hurting pretty much the exact moment that i started running after a ball hit into the outfield. so the rest of the afternoon i just kept my running to a minimum.

the whole past week my foot has continued to hurt, so i tried to get an appointment with the podiatrist i saw 2 years ago when my mom acknowledged that i had something wrong with my foot (either that or she just said okay to sending me to the doctor so i’d shut up about hurting). they said they could get me in on august 21. i called, told them i was in severe pain, and to please try to work me in before i leave for las vegas on the 1st.

wednesday, mom and i were out shopping and got back at 5 past 5, only to find a message on the machine saying there was an opening with the doc thursday morning at 8:30. it was too late to call back, so i just got up early and went his office hoping they hadn’t filled that appointment. i got in, got x-rays, and found out that i have a stress fracture on my “pointer” toe and have to wear my boot cast for at least 2 weeks, if not more (he told me to take it with me to vegas in case i needed it).

so yea. at least i have some validation that the pain i’m feeling is not just in my head or something.

so i went to minnesota.

on our way flying in, we were perplexed by this rainbow thing reflecting on the clouds. and then as we started our descent we noticed the shadow of our plane in the middle of the circle.

we also saw that every single lake in the land of 10,000 lakes was frozen.

we got really excited because as we were getting closer to the ground, we could see snow showers in the vicinity.

it snowed the day we got there, as we were unloading the busses at the hotel.

(notice the sweatshirt with the off-center logo…i went to exchange it for a different sweatshirt that wasn’t off-center, but they were ALL like that. so i got a school of music shirt, a blue belmont shirt, and an alumni sticker instead)

the hotel had a nice welcome sign for us all.

friday we went to the mall of america.

where we encountered the animal botanical.

as well as 4 floors of shopping.

my friend amy and i rode a roller coaster.

we also saw a lego stego.

as we were walking around the mall we found a store that was devoted to the alpaca, or rather, its fur.

saturday we had the game. it was fun. wish we would have hit more than 1 of the 25 3-pointers that we shot off, but we did keep a team that averages 72 points per game to only 53, so that’s definitely something to be proud of. that, and we got into the big dance in the first place.

oh, yeah…and i also got into grad school…and got the offer i was hoping for from UH. and i’m moving back to houston in 2 weeks…

word on the street is that the women’s game saturday will be aired on ESPN at 1:30 CST. the men’s game (tomorrow at 1:55 CST) will be on CBS. i think i’ll go to campus to watch the first half-ish before our bus leaves for the airport (load-in starts at 2, the women’s send-off party is at 2:30, and we leave for the airport at 3. our plane leaves at 5).

i got a new swimsuit today so i can utilize the heated indoor pool, hot tub, and sauna at our hotel. and i’m looking forward to going to the mall of america on friday!

the women will be playing georgia on saturday in minneapolis. i was put on the women’s band list since there was a chance that the men would leave tomorrow (and there’s an orchestra concert tomorrow), so dr. schallert put all the orchestra folks with the women’s team. when we found out that the men are going to winston-salem and the band won’t leave until wednesday, i decided i wanted to stay on the women’s group (partially because the men’s band is taking a bus. another 8 hours on a bus with cheerleaders. no thank you).

this morning dr. schallert e-mailed me saying he had a favor to ask. i thought he was going to ask me to switch to the men’s band. i called him and it turns out that i will be directing the women’s band at their game (hopefully games). i’ll have a meeting with him (and our faculty representative) tomorrow to go over the rule book and to make sure that i don’t call up a tune and start playing when i’m not supposed to…nobody wants to get a technical called on their pep band. and nobody wants to be the director of the pep band if that happens.

i don’t know if the game will be on TV (if it is, it’ll probably be on ESPN8 “The Ocho” or something that’s only available on the most obscure satellite program available), but keep a lookout for the belmont v. georgia game on saturday and watch it if it’s playing.

-in australia, they don’t have pick-up trucks. they have utes. and utes are ugly. (they look like el caminos…google image search “ford falcon ute” and you’ll see what i mean)
-they drive on the wrong side of the road (though i knew this already…i just kept thinking we were on the wrong side of the road all the time)
-they WALK on the wrong side of the sidewalk (i almost got run over a few times as i reverted to walking on the right (as in right…not correct) side of the sidewalk)
-tim tams are a thing of the gods
-vegemite, on the other hand, is not (though i knew better than to try it…but tell that to kristin and sharon who got a mouth-ful last night)
-kangaroos are like our deer (though i didn’t witness a roo hopping in front of a car, i did witness what happens with most of those animals…they get skinned and made into roo skins and purses and stuff)
-they don’t have burger king…it’s hungry jack’s, which is known as HJ’s (pronounced haytch-jays…or something like that)
-mcdonald’s is known as macca’s, not mickey d’s
-7-elevens abound
-new zealand is a country unto itself, and therefore uses a different currency than the mainland (glad i only spent an hour there)
-vic market is amazing
-$200 AU is only about $150 USD
-despite telling me that i won’t get charged at approved ATM’s, bank of america still charged me when i used approved ATM’s (not the 1% charge…the $5 charge for “not having an approved card”…grrr)
-qantas flights aren’t bad if there is nobody sitting next to you
-they’re even better when you have sleeping pills in your system
-white chocolate has no chocolate in it whatsoever
-belgian waffles are 100 times better if they’re smothered in chocolate, strawberries, and ice cream (okay…so i didn’t put the EXTRA chocolate sauce on them, but they were still amazing)
-if i get to go again i should just go ahead and pack myself an extra suitcase even if i “left room” for souvenirs…
-ben stiller’s movies have “easter eggs” in them, so when he does a certain motion, and you press enter right after he’s done it, you get to see a deleted scene that’s not on the deleted scenes page (ok…so i learned that on the way to LA, but it should still count)
-southwest seats have no cushions compared to qantas (and that’s not saying a WHOLE lot, but on qantas, my butt didn’t go numb)
-if you don’t sleep your sleeping pills out you’ll be dizzy and lightheaded the rest of the day
-penguins do it every night…at the penguin parade on phillip island
-opals are everywhere there
-they don’t have ER or law & order: SVU there (but i do have a wonderful roommate who taped them for me while i was gone!)
-wedges with sweet chili and sour cream are amazing
-bailey’s cheesecake gelato is yummy
-at the baptist college of victoria, the halls and bathrooms are all co-ed
-the bathroom doors all have a “vacant/engage” thing on the knob so there is no guessing whether or not that closed door has anyone behind it.
and last but not least
-no matter how many times i tell myself, it was NOT easy for me to get to sleep tonight (umm…look at the time stamp…it most definitely says “4 AM”!)