Thanks to my first independent tax return, I was able to completely pay off my horn (hallelujah!) and get ahead on rent payments. Money was all balanced, and then the hammer fell: two months worth of loan payments hadn't gone through. I apparently can't type my bank account number, so it was my fault, but there was no big red flag saying that the payments hadn't gone through. It's no wonder most of my friends complain about loans; I'm not worried about the cost of the payments themselves, but the process and the issues I've had with it. Oh well...we're getting there!
Meanwhile, I got to feel like a college student for a day or two: two concerts in two nights! The orchestra concert was on Thursday night. I wasn't totally happy with my playing. I still haven't gotten used to working a full day, then turning around and being a musician. It wasn't bad, but felt phoned in.
The women's choir concert the next night felt great! I had mis-transposed one of the parts in practice, but was able to fix it upon realization. Something about my brain thinking it would be horn in G, but was actually in F#. Blech. The concert went swimmingly, and my favorite piece of the three I accompanied was the best. All in all, I felt like there's hope for my playing.
My lesson yesterday also went very well. I walked in with nothing specific prepared, as being sick had made us skip a lesson and it was time for something new. I made a point to ask for a game plan for the next year leading up to grad school auditions (part deux) as well as more to work on specifically on a day-to-day basis. We agreed that I haven't been practicing enough (as always these days it seems), but my Lent goal is to practice every single day. We modified it to be a minimum of two hours every day but Sunday, where I should practice as much as I can, but I'm allowed to do just an hour if my face is tired. We're going to get me back in shape! I'm also facing another three months of focusing on the fundamentals of my playing, since I have (as he put it) "a very nice box that [my] playing fits in, but it needs more tools and features to it." Lots of long tones, lots of range building, and lots of etudes. It's going to be a long few months, but only good things can come out of it.
In the home life, there's a new housemate at our place, which has made for a fun change, and led to lots of (very, very needed) cleaning of common areas like the living room and kitchen. The only sad thing in all of this was the information that our landlord is selling the house at the end of the lease this summer. It was really nice to feel settled and have a real house for the first time since going away for college, and now it looks like I may be back to apartment dwelling soon. I like my free laundry...
Whining aside, life is going well. I'm busy and seemingly always checking my planner to make sure events aren't overlapping. Work has settled into less insanity and is instead just steady. Clearly I'm blogging right now, so it's not horrendous! The weather has finally started acting like spring here in Seattle, which means I'm fairly close to throwing off the wool pea coat for something lighter and less cumbersome. I finished knitting a pretty shawl for the summer months just a few days ago, and in general, I'm ready for the summer. I know I need to keep reminding myself that I'll still be working full-time then, but there's that instinct that life will be so much easier then.
Now, it's time to run and do the next thing on my list for this week: making a list of all the schools that have peaked my interest for grad school. I'm glad that I've learned the process and can say I'm starting almost 6 months earlier this time than I did last year!
~Allison
