IrishOboe

Having spent far too much time trying to decipher my notation homework I decided to write a brief update since I’m not hurling sticks at people – I mean dancing.  The Flower Clock came up randomly on my MP3 player and it still is so dear to me.  For those of you who weren’t following my life – oh my, was it 10 years ago?  I played that oboe concerto with the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra.  The dress I bought for it is hanging in my closet here, though I’m not sure I have as much space to breath anymore . . .  And I still can’t believe my own boyfriend didn’t practice his part – oops, he just found me on facebook I better not say anything bad about him. ;)

Randomness aside, on Monday (Nov. 26^th), I had a wonderful morning of practice and rehearsal for about six straight hours and it was lovely.  The brave lady who is putting together the music for the Christmas program met me at school so we could go over some conducting skills.  I’ve never taken a conducting class and I’ve only conducted for brief moments once or twice (though one time it was the All-State orchestra, which is still one of the coolest experiences of my life) but Sarah has never conducted so I offered to help her find ways to help her help the orchestra.  Sorry, no time to fix that helped-out sentence.  I’ve spend most of my life watching conductors and conducting has always interested me so I’ve learned a lot by paying attention in rehearsal.  The rest of the time I did homework or read . . .  Anyway, it was very much fun to work with her and it made me realize that I miss teaching very much.  I’ve been too busy to look for students, but I think it will make me feel better to start giving to people rather than being a constantly self-focused student.  We’ll see if anything I changed helps for Sunday’s rehearsal.  I have the utmost respect for her guts and ambition!

After that lovely variation in my schedule I met Veronika at the Cooper’s for dinner.  It was once again one of the most lovely meals I’ve ever had.  It looked beautiful and it tasted even better.  We enjoyed a lovely evening but I’m afraid I was fading in and out and wasn’t much good in keeping the conversation up.

So I’m reminded why I don’t write updates more frequently – I go on and on.  Tuesday was another good practice day and though I was tempted to see BCF people I decided to go back to the German Bible study because I’d missed last week and I hadn’t ordered the BCF book because I wasn’t going to be going.  Anyway, it was lovely to be back and I took a stealth recording of our singing.  The discussion was again quite intense and deep and I could follow a fair bit of it.  I found it interesting that when questions of doctrine in the creeds came up part of the exploration involved sharing what the same creed in difference languages said.  Of course we had German and English, but also French, Italian and even Latin – all for memory, of course.  I’m not sure it got us anywhere, but I’m sorry if I still get tickled by being reminded that I’m in an international community.

Today I played quite a bit of fiddle and was so happy that with discipline I didn’t end up in any pain.  By discipline I mean stopping when I hurt even if I was in the middle of practicing something.  I even played through Ken’s class with a few small breaks and felt fine at the end.  Praise God!

Thanks to God also for his lifting of my spirits.  Having written all my ups and downs before I figured I’d spare you most of it since I still seem to be just as unstable as ever.  Rather than think of all kinds of excuses I’m just thankful for a break in the clouds and return of some joy.  I’m also being more proactive about meeting with friends who inspire me to love the Lord and think deeply.  They are often the types who are too busy to suggest getting together.  Myself included, if that’s not too much of an egotistical statement.  Okay, now time for bed.