Yawn

So I went and got Catherine last night and we went over to the Zapfs. Catherine then played Michelle's piece she wrote for Catherine's recital, and made sure she was playing the right notes and stuff. Meanwhile, I crawled into Michelle's bed because I was exhausted. After a nice restful sleep, we got up, ate breakfast, and went to school. We practiced for about 3 hours, and then went home to shower and stuff. Catherine went off to school around 5 to warm-up and stuff before her recital, and I hung out and watched the first season of Two Guys and a Girl (and a Pizza Place). Then I went to school to see Cath's recital. She was pretty fuckin' great, but Michelle and I became extremely enraged when she and Alastair started getting all dramatic and touchy. I mean, cheese and rice! Hasn't Alastair yanked her around enough?!!!! You don't declare your undying love for someone, and then the moment they reciprocate say that you can't leave your 16-year-old girlfriend. Honestly, Catherine cried for a week. And yet she is still allowing him to yank her around. I want to go slap him around for being such a motherfucker. But Catherine has such low opinion of herself that she just lets him do it. Oh yeah, and he's been accepted to U of Michigan, but he hasn't told her yet. So she's also torn up about that. It really pisses Michelle and I off, because we would never ever in a million gazillion years let someone play us like that. And if someone tried to, we would beat them up (at least I would - Michelle would probably settle for a nice kick in the balls). Anyways, it's just really annoying because I've seen this all before with Catherine. She gets her heart set on some jerk who isn't very good to her, and there's no talking sense into her. I've tried. For 6 years. "We have a connection!" she said when she was 16 and he was 23 and in a serious relationship. This time it's, "Alastair is irreplaceable!" You know what, if there's one thing I've learned it's that we're all replaceable. You can always replace someone. Just ask the Chinese.

I Heart

So I did nap for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, and then dragged myself to school for sectionals. We finished early so then I hung out waiting for the violins to finish, then Catherine and I went over to Michelle's. We hung out with Michelle's family, and stuff. Then we all lay down in Michelle's bed and watched a couple episodes of Coupling before falling asleep. That's a funny show. I especially like the Scottish guy who says "breasts" all the time.

I got a chance to catch up on my sleep a bit, and Michelle and I stopped at the Booster Juice at Jane and Bloor on our way to school. Booster Juice is always a good idea. Anyways, so then we had Canadian Repertoire class, and then I went home for a bit, and then rollerbladed down to school to see Catherine play in a masterclass for Leila Josefewicz. She was pretty awesome - she's hot AND talented! It's not fair! And then I practiced for a bit, and watched Bones in the student lounge, and now I'm home again. I'm going to go down to school at 11 and pick up Catherine, and then we're going to go to Michelle's. I heart Michelle, and her whole family - it's nice to get some family time in when you can't have it with your own.

Finally!

Yesterday was crazy study day. I got up and went to school, had class, had a rehearsal, and had my lesson, then headed over to Michelle's to study for our history exam. I took a little 'break' around 9:30 to drive Ingunn to the airport to pick up her pianist, and pick up Catherine from Alastair's, then we studyed like crazy till 2, got 6 hours of sleep, and studied until our test at 10. There was so much information to look through, because it was a test that encompassed the entire Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. That's like, 200 years and tons of stuff. Anyways, the studying paid off because there were only a few questions on the exam that I was like, "wha?!" And I totally rocked my essay question on Beethoven's style and innovations. He was a badass. And now I might try to nap. We'll see. Today's the first day in 3 days I haven't had a headache from fatigue, but if I don't nap then by the time orchestra comes along at 7:30 tonight I might be ready to die.....

Head ache

I am so tired right now. Yesterday we went busking, so it was another exciting 4:30 am morning. I'm getting quite good at dozing on a hard tile floor in the foyer of the market. People must think I'm just a very well dressed homeless person. Anyways, we didn't make that much money because it was raining, and because we only played 'till 11. Then I went to school and chillaxed before my lesson with Kim Kashkashian. I played for her in the masterclass on Friday morning, and then yesterday afternoon I had an open lesson with my Bartok concerto. That piece is so depressing, because it takes forever to learn. Steve wants me to play it on my recital in May, and I just don't think I can learn it by then. It's stressing me out. If I didn't have the May 3rd deadline to worry about, I could just relax and practice it, but instead I feel stressed out man!!! I'm exhausted also because instead of napping yesterday afternoon, or going to bed early, I had to go pick up Catherine from the airport, and then play this boring choir concert. The people in the choir were very nice, and they were even playing marginally interesting music, seeing as how it was all Bach and Mozart. But I was just so exhausted. I spaced out for a while during this one piece I was tacet for, and I had to keep blinking rapidly and gripping my viola really hard in order to not fall off my chair and sleep on the floor. It was just so tempting. Cold tile floors are really comfy!

Again.

So, I got up at 7:30 this morning and dragged my ass off to school to practice. I got some good work done, and planned to do more this afternoon, but it was not to be. I went to Canadian Repertoire class, which is taught by the husband of one of my old colleagues from the Saskatoon Symphony, and they had a baby last monday!!! A girl named Blythe Elizabeth Burry. BEB for short I guess. After class I ate my lunch and waited for Matthew who was of course late for our rehearsal. And then I got this call from Carol asking me if I wanted to sub in for her teaching this afternoon, so I said sure. Easy money. So after my rehearsal, instead of practicing like I had origionally intended I headed over to Barnaby's house to teach violin kids. Carol works for my old friend from NYO who runs a music school out of his house. I like subbing for Carol because it means I get to hang out with Barnaby, which I never have the time to do. He showed me this hilarious site called 419eater.com, with this guy who scams the Nigerian e-mail scammers. It's pretty absurdly hilarious. And so I just got home about half and hour ago, and I'm doing the whole checking the emails thing, and I'm going to watch my daily show and colbert report from yesterday and then go to bed. I like bed. But not as much as beb.

Kweebeck

So, another couple of exciting days in the life of me. Yesterday was back to the grind, with art history in the morning and a really bad lesson in the afternoon. And then I wrote a thoughtful and insightful paper on Rembrandt. Really. Today we had music history, and found out our term test is next week. Yippee. Then I went to Michelle's and hung out with her and her mom for a while before driving the car to school to pick up Catherine and Regulo. They flew out this afternoon for the Colburn auditions in LA, and I wish I was going with them. I need a vacation somewhere warm. And then I went back to Michelle's and hung out with her family. I ended up staying for dinner, and I finally managed to tear myself away to come home. And now I'm going to watch downloaded TV while I bow Bartok parts for the next orchestra concert. Woot. Actually my only semi-exciting news is that I got into chamber music at Domaine again this year. Other non-exciting news is that our quartet was waitlisted for a residency at Banff. That wasn't really a surprise though, because we know they really want us to come but it's just a space issue. We'll see what happens I guess.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Um Ok. It's been really exciting lately. I get up in the mornings, and I go to school and practice, and then I come home. The most exciting thing is I went over to Michelle's this afternoon and hung out with her mom and her brother. Good times. I've been organizing my trip to BC, and it looks like I'm flying into Vancouver on the 10th of April and out of Comox on the 15th. I'm looking forward to a little break, as I've worked through both Feb. and March breaks this year, and May's looking crazy. Stupid auditions. I'm just trying to look around funding sources for Iceland in August. We are now accepting donations. Do I hear one million dollars? Anybody? Hello?

Mwah

Sooooo......today I got up and went to school for my 11 am quartet rehearsal. It ended at 1 and I listened to the Arpeggione sonata with my score in the library until my Trout quintet rehearsal at 2. When that was done at 4 I was very hungry so I went to get some food. I sat in the student lounge and watched Dr. Phil while eating my Subway special of the day and was eventually joined by Dave and Luise. We ended up sitting around and watching bad tv - Simpsons, Friends, Sex and the City - until 7:30. I then went and practiced, and while taking a break at 9ish I ran into Dave in the hallway. We got talking about Bach so I went to the bass room to listen to his Bach suite. I then went back and finished some work on my Bartok concerto, and headed home.

I'm currently in scheduling mode for my April things. I had to move our quartet concert at the Bata Shoe Museum as I've been asked to play with the Canadian Opera Company orchestra to try out their new concert hall that's being completed. Also, I spent time on the phone with my mom, my cousin Bruce's wife, and my Grandma figuring out some logistics for my trip to BC in April. And now I really need some sleep seeing as how I have to get up in 6 1/2 hours to go to a quartet rehearsal. I wonder where Catherine is......

Hello........

Well, today was sure exciting. I got up and got to school at 9:30. I practiced until my rehearsal at 12, then had a lesson from 1-2:30. I then went home and did laundry. Then once my laundry was done I was so bored I went and saw that new movie Failure To Launch. It was Ok I guess. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was better though, and it was basically the same premise, and also starring Matthew McConaghey. It's that classic story of guy meets girl, guy falls in love with girl, then finds out she's a scheming whore, then figures out he loves her anyways, and they all live happily ever after. Awwww....... Although, I have to say that the alcoholic, emotionally unavailable best friend was a nice touch. I liked her.

I'm reading this book right now called 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, and it's totally blowing my mind. It's this huge mofo of a book, and I'm just tearing through it because it's so fascinating. I highly recommend it to anybody who's the least bit interested in how our entire history is a lie and the Chinese are our magnanimous overlords. It really just makes me wish I were Chinese, because then I'd belong to a super-cool advanced society. Instead of the boring old Wester European one, who just stole all the glory from the Chinese. I mean, the only reason the Europeans "discovered" North America is because they already knew it was there! They had maps that clearly showed where everything was, because the Chinese had already been there in the 1420s!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My head is exploding!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter?!

Well, today was nice. I got up at 10 am, and watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. And all I can say is holy frakking crap damn! I can't believe they just did that! But anyhoo, I then proceeded to school, where I tried to play in tune for five hours. It was super fun. I did take a little time out to eat,and get coffee with Catherine while she bemoaned her twisted love life. And then we rehearsed quartet. We listened to the Schafer 5th String Quartet, and we've decided to switch to that one from Schafer 2. His 2nd String Quartet is cool, but it's just not our bag, baby. The fifth is way more our kinda thing. But it's really hard, so it's going to be alot of work. And then we worked on trying to play the fourth movement of our Beethoven in tune. It's a sad fact that I spend most of my life trying to play in tune. I want it now!!!!

After quartet I sat in the student lounge and watched part one of Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story on CBC, and I talked to my dad and Cayley on the phone who had some exciting news - Cayley got a job in the Premier's office and he's moving to Regina!!! I think I was way more excited than he was, because I think it's super cool. After they kicked us out of school at 10, Catherine and I went home. And since it was balmy today we went running/rollerblading. We went over St. Clair to Yonge, then down to Bloor, then accross to Bedford, up to Davenport, over to Bathurst, and up again to our place. It's about 8.7 km. Up Bathurst at Davenport is a huge hill, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. But what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, right? Right?!!!!!!!

I'm Never Drinking Again

So Ingunn's party was pretty fun. I was this hiarious mix of music people and random Icelandic people. I didn't actually drink, but Ingunn called me yesterday to inform me that she's never drinking again. She got so shit-faced she flashed Alastair. Which if you know Ingunn, means she was pretty frakking drunk. We left at about 1:30, but didn't get home until 2 as we gave Carolyn and Matthias a ride home. I then sat on the couch and put on downoaded tv to watch until I had to leave at 4:15. Next thing I knew my alarm was going off - good thing I pr-emptively set it. So I got 2 very uncomfortable hours of sleep on the couch. So I went and picked everyone up for busking; Peter, Senja, and Pheobe. Tom's not allowed to go busking anymore as he threw out his neck. We got there at 5ish and claimed our spot in the foyer. I then proceeded to sleep for an hour on the floor. Some old man made fun of me....

We played until 1, and made $150 each. Go team. Peter then dropped me off at home, and I hung out watching downloaded tv and fielding lots of calls from people. One of the calls was from Chonghua wanting to go out. I said sure, but that she had to call me back at 10 to wake me up and give me details. So I went to bed at about 5 pm, and woke up at 10 this morning. Needless to say Chonghua never called, but I figured I probably needed the sleep.

It's A Girl!!!

Wow. It's been a while. I swear I've been busy. Actually, I've been so busy I haven't actually practiced this week. Tuesday and Wednesday nights I had 2 and a half hours of opera orchestra, and then today they gave us a big lecture about being irresponsible and reduced the orchestra to about five people. All that work for nothing. My week wasn't particularily exciting, just busy. On Wednesday my Canadian Repertoire class went to the Canadian Music Centre for a tour. It was pretty cool. Then since we were downtown and we never are anymore, Michelle and I went out for Vietnamese on Yonge street. Last night after chamber class I went to the bar with Catherine, Carolyn, Alastair, and Matthias. We drank about a pitcher each and had long conversations about boobs. It was awesome.
Today I was a proctor for the Royal Academy of Music auditions. So basically I sat in the hallway all day and told people when they could go into their audition. But then they paid me $100, so that was nice! And also today is Ingunn's birthday, so I'm writing this from her house as we wait for people to show up to par-tay. I was in charge of decorations, so I went to the dollar store and got streamers that said 'Baby' and balloons and a banner that says 'It's a girl!' It's the best decorating EVER. So hopefully hijinks will ensue, but I unfortunatly can't drink TOO much as I have to drive home, and then get up at 4:30 to pick everyone up for busking. Woot.

Cough

So yesterday I got up at about 11, and sat around and home until 3. It was fabulous. Then I walked to school because it was nice out, and practiced for a while - until about 8:30. I then came home and watched the tail end of the Oscars. I liked Jon Stewart, but the audience full of people he was making fun of didn't seem to like him all that much. They all just think that what they do is SO important, so they really don't like it when somebody points out the absurdity and frivolity of their profession. I don't mind it when someone does to me. I mean, music? It's not exactly Doctors Without Borders or UN Peacekeeping. It's seriously frivolous. Seriously.

Anyways, I had kind of a crappy sleep because I kept waking up to hack and cough. Fun. I accidentally slept in this morning cause of the whole crappy sleep thing and was almost late for Art History. That is the most boring class ever. It's interesting stuff art-wise, but our teacher is insane and goes off on these tangents about fruit and veg painting and eating the pictures. It's all very odd. And then I had a lesson, which I hadn't really practiced too much for seeing as how I spent three days in bed last week, and then we had quartet rehearsal where we read through the last movement of our Beethoven very slowly, then worked on two lines for half and hour. It was super fun.

I then decided I needed a break, as I had been going for 5 hours non-stop, so I took the subway to Ingunn's to watch random TV. She was supposed to have New Music Ensemble, but unfortunatly the teacher cancelled, so she came home and convinced me to go shopping. Shopping when you have no money is seriously no fun. Seriously. I found this blazer at H&M that was really nice, but it just wasn't $70 nice. Stupid money. (Note to self: locate a money tree) Then I went back to school and practiced for a bit, and had a soul-sucking Schubert rehearsal with Matthew who doesn't listen to anything I do, and then I came home. Fun.

Bag 'O Change

So, we went busking yesterday and made about $85 each. It wasn't a really lucrative day, our all time high being $175 each, but it'll keep me in food for the week. I kept making Tom and Peter take lots of breaks throughout the day. They always want to keep playing straight, but you just can't do that for five or six hours. So about every hour I'd just be like, "Break time!!!!" and put my viola away. Anyhoo, afterwards we went over to Peter and Mariko's to count out the money and eat some lunch. We somehow ended up watching Ace Ventura, Pet Detective on TBS. That movie is so wierd. I also fell asleep in the middle so I lost some of the continuity. I hope. By about 5:30 I was feeling pretty crappy, and I was supposed to rehearse the Schubert with Matthew at 7, so I called him and rescheduled for Monday and caught the bus home. But instead of going to bed when I got home, I instead watched about half of season 5 of Gilmore Girls. I'd been waiting for it to finish downloading for weeks, and now that I finally had it I couldn't not watch it!!!! But by about 10:30 I was in really rough shape so I did my bedtime drugging ritual (NyQuil, ibuprofen, and decongestant) and tucked in. All in all, very exciting.

So this violist walks into a bar....

So I've decided to get into this whole blog thing. Again. I think my last attempt was unsuccessful because a) I made the site myself so it just meant waaaaay too much upkeep for someone as busy and important as I, and b) because I thought my life was boring. Well, I've decided to bore the world again, and am really going to try to document the mundane. So here we go.

Let's start with Tuesday. I was feeling footloose and fancy free. I deposited my pension cheque in the bank, and was rich beyond all imagining, and agreed to go dancing with my crazy Chinese friend Chonghua. I don't know how she ever passed TOEFL, as half of what she says is either incomprehensible or cursing. "Katya! Why the fuck you fucking do that!" And, our quartet made a smashing appearance at the York Club, one of those swanky private clubs for really rich people. There were four acts from our school there, Phillip Chiu a pianist, Kornel Wolak, a clarinettist, the Three Young Tenors (these three tenor guys), and us. We were the cap to the evening, and played during dessert. Anyways, they loved us. Because we're hot. After that we met up with Tom and Peter at the Duke for a drink, as they had been attending a seminar on how to build straw bale houses right accross the street from the York Club. It's a skill we will need to know for our commune. So I went to sleep feeling pretty good.

And woke up not so good. I had a fever, sore throat, stuffy nose - the works. I only get sick about once a year, but when I go down, it's bad. And this was bad. Unfortunatly, we had a quartet coaching with Steve at 9 am that it was too late to cancel, so I hauled myself out of bed and over to school. I don't remember much of the coaching, other than it was too early to play in tune, and I almost killed Ingunn over an up-bow (I'm a belligerent sick person). As soon as our coaching was over, I told Michelle to tell our Canadian Rep teacher I was sick and went home, took a dose of delicious (disgusting) NyQuil, and went to bed. I woke up once at about 8 pm for another dose of delicious (disgusting) NyQuil, and slept through till 11ish the next day. I then got up and tried to check my email. After beginning to feel queasy and blacking out, I collapsed back in bed and slept until 1ish. I got up, tottered over to Shoppers to get some more delicious (mmm....gelcaps) NyQuil and throat lozenges, and tottered back home. I finished the rest of the Due South episodes I had downloaded, and went to bed around 8. I slept to 9 am, and lo and behold the fever was gone. But sadly, my throat was worse. I could now no longer swallow. I thought that this might prove difficult in my mission to keep on living, so I threw on some clothes and stumbled over to the walk-in clinic. Where I waited in a trance for the doctor to take a throat swab and tell me that I should really just be taking lots and lots of ibuprofen. If only I could swallow them..... I stumbled back home and went back to bed.

I woke up at about 4 and realized I hadn't really eaten in the past few days, and I was a teensy bit hungry. And also, my throat had subsided so that I could now swallow small amounts of saliva and mushy food. So I ate some mushy food, and got a message on my phone from Catherine saying that my peeps were getting together at 6:30 to sightread with Andres Cardenes, the violin teacher in town giving masterclasses. I figured I missed all of his classes, and I haven't done anything but sleep since Wednesday, so why not. At 5:30 I bundled myself up and headed off to school. The sightreading was fun - we read through Brahms Eflat sextet and Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence. The Souvenir was scary because it's tricky and I was reading 2nd viola, and the last couple times I played it I was 1st viola. Then afterwards we went to the bar with Andres and we had some beer and gossiped. We finally extricated ourselves at around midnight, and caught the subway home. I then made the decision that instead of getting very little sleep, I would just stay up until it was time to go busking. In about 10 minutes I will call Tom, who will pick up Peter and then me, and we shall make glorious music in return for pocket change. I love paying for everything out of my bag o' change.